I am currently working with the University of Pennsylvania and Internews on a new project called Ranking Digital Rights, bringing together research partners from around the globe to develop a sound methodology to assess, compare, and ultimately rank the world’s most powerful information communications technology (ICT) companies on free expression and privacy criteria.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese (thanks to two years in a Chinese primary school and parents who made sure I didn't forget what I'd learned), I worked as a journalist for CNN in Beijing for nine years, serving as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 1998-2001 and then moved to Japan where I was CNN’s Tokyo Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 2001-03. From 2004-06 I was a Research Fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where I started researching Chinese Internet censorship and corporate responsibility issues, in addition to launching Global Voices Online. In 2007 and 2008 I served on the faculty of the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre, where I taught online journalism and conducted research on Chinese Internet censorship. During that time I was also Project Lead for Creative Commons Hong Kong In 2009 I continued my research and writing as an Open Society Institute Fellow, and in the Spring of 2010 I was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy.